An EVER production | Jonathan Fein & Brian Danitz

The documentary film and educational initiative Objects and Memory is about how we respond to history while it is happening and how we tell our stories through the otherwise ordinary things in our homes and museums that are associated with people, places, and events.

The film was PBS’s national prime time
special in commemoration of the seventh, tenth, and fifteenth
anniversaries of 9/11. A PBS programming executive commented,
“[This] program is one of the very few that continue to see
broadcast play after so many years – the overwhelming majority
of shows never see that much affection over time from PBS and
stations.” With narration by Frank Langella and music by Philip
Glass, Objects and Memory invites viewers to consider what they
value most, and how we form communities across time.

Objects and Memory is now available for purchase. The DVD includes additonal interviews, personal stories, and deleted/extended scenes. Availablehere.

Producer/Director Jon Fein will be
speaking at the Croton Free Library, 171 Cleveland Drive,
Croton-On-Hudson, NY on Wednesday October 3 at 7:30 pm.

Objects and Memory was honored with
the 2010 American Association for State and Local History Award
of Merit, considered the most prestigious national recognition
for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state
and local history. The film was profiled on ABC's 20/20.

In the face of sudden disruption and
inexplicable loss, there is a need to bridge the irreplaceable
past with a hopeful future. This film follows people driven to
preserve meaningful objects in the aftermath of 9/11 and other
upheavals. Otherwise ordinary items come to symbolize
experiences, aspirations, and identity. Without the objects, the
stories would lack vibrancy; without the stories the objects
would lack significance. Taken together, the images of the
objects and the stories they evoke lead the viewer on a journey
where the commonplace is transformed into the remarkable and
where the stuff of history is highly personalized.